Frost Flowers (Bloom Of Flowers), Arctic Ocean

Frost flowers are ice crystals commonly found growing on young sea ice and thin lake ice in cold, calm conditions. The ice crystals are similar to hoar frost, and are commonly seen to grow in patches around 3–4 cm in diameter. Frost flowers growing on sea ice have extremely high salinities and concentrations of other sea water chemicals and, because of their high surface area, are efficient releasers of these chemicals into the atmosphere.

Frost flowers are formed on new sea ice, on the open water leads when the atmosphere is much colder than the underlying ice. Open water leads are formed by the winds, tides, and currents. These leads expose water near 0 °C to much colder air, which results in the rapid formation of ice. With the formation and growth of ice salt is simultaneously pushed out back into the ocean due to gravity (gravity drainage) as well as outward which form brine channels extending to the surface. This results in high saline “surface skim” that is usually 5 °C to 10 °C warmer than the surrounding air forming new sea ice. Typically a temperature difference between the ice surface and the air of at least 15 °C is required, though this can be reduced if the air is very humid. In these conditions a layer of supersaturated vapour occurs due to the "surface skim" providing excess water vapor. As the warmer, wet air meets the overlying cold air it becomes supersaturated and condenses allowing small crystals to form a nucleus on the sea ice surface's imperfections and grow by vapor deposition. In general, frost flowers only form in relatively windless conditions; in high winds the supersaturated layer is scrubbed from the surface and blowing snow obscures the ice surface.

Frost flowers can grow and spread forming a dense concentration of frost flowers across the ocean. On lake ice, frost flowers are effectively identical to hoar frost crystals. On sea ice, through surface tension and differences in concentration gradients, frost flowers that sit on brine-saturated surfaces wicks up the brine, increasing the bulk salinity, which leads to high salinity. The tips of mature frost flowers are less saline due to vapor deposition and the bulk salinity decreases at night due to hoarfrost accumulation as the temperature drops and snow (they are very good at collecting snow) which also reduces their bulk salinity over time. Studies have been done on frost flowers and in one study in the ocean near Barrow, Alaska Alvarez-Aviles et al. (2008) found that the bulk salinities of the frost flowers ranged from 16 ppt to 105 ppt with an average of about 62 ppt. Frost flowers are most commonly found on young sea ice in polar regions as the large temperature differences between the ice and air are suitable for growth. When the ice grows too thick, the upper surface of the ice cools down and frost flowers no longer grow. This means that frost flowers typically only grow in the first few days of ice coverage. 

 

Frost flowers are complex in microstructural chemistry due to many different conditions, like air, temperature, chemical concentrations in the water, surface skim, humidity, and precipitation influencing their formation and growth. An important part of their formation is the fractionation of sodium and sulfate in respects to chloride during precipitation of the salts. When the temperature decreases brine rejection increases and the channels become more and more concentrated, especially at the surface. When the salts begin the precipitate out of the ice, it changes the relative ion concentrations available in liquid water and in the frost flowers. Temperatures below -8 °C there is an increase loss of sodium and sulfate in relation to a decreasing temperature resulting in a depletion of aerosol from frost flowers at such temperatures in contrast to other ions. Frost flowers aerosol will have a higher sodium to sulfate ratio in comparison to aerosol from seawater because sulfate has a greater proportion being removed than sodium when mirabilite (Na2SO4 · 10H2O) precipitates. Frost flowers have a high concentration, typically 2 to 3 times greater, of bromide ions than found in seawater which is proportional to the salinity in the frost flowers . If the temperature were low enough for the sodium chloride that is present in the brine or frost flowers to freeze out, then the bromide may become readily available. Ice surface temperatures below -22 °C start to precipitate out sodium chloride and even lower temperatures other ions will precipitate out, but with surface ice temperature that low frost flowers cannot form, so it is unlikely that there will be depleted sodium chloride.

Frost flowers have attracted interest as a possible source of polar atmospheric aerosol. High chemical concentrations and the extended surface area may facilitate efficient release into the atmosphere. In particular studies have shown that abundance of frost flowers can be linked to high concentrations of troposphericbromine monoxide causing tropospheric ozone depletion events, and higher quantities of airborne sea-salt particles. The study Obbard et al. (2009) addressing the concern of bromine, which may be causing the ozone depletion, showed no conclusive evidence that the frost flower aerosol is causing a significant contribution of bromine enrichment into the atmosphere. Furthermore, the study showed that there was bromine depletion as well as enrichment relative to chloride in frost flowers.

On Sept. 2, 2009, a University of Washington biology team sailing back from the North Pole encountered these little flowery things growing on the frozen sea "like a meadow spreading off in all directions. Every available surface was covered with them." When allowed to melt, the one to two milliliters of water recovered was found to hold about a million bacteria. Professor Jody Deming believes that as the poles warm, there will be more and more of these meadows, because there will be more and more open sea that turns to thin ice in winter, and her team is eager to discover what the bacteria living in the frost flowers are doing. 

Lenticular Clouds, Visible on Montain Area

Lenticular clouds are stationary clouds that form mostly in the troposphere, typically in perpendicular alignment to the wind direction. They are often comparable in appearance to a lens or saucer. Nacreous clouds that form in the lower stratosphere sometimes have lenticular shapes.

There are three main types of lenticular clouds: altocumulus standing lenticular (ACSL), stratocumulus standing lenticular (SCSL), and cirrocumulus standing lenticular (CCSL), varying in altitude above the ground. Because of their unique appearance, they have been suggested as an explanation for some unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings. 

 

 

As air travels along the surface of the Earth, obstructions are often encountered. These include both natural features of the Earth, such as mountains or hills, and artificial structures, such as buildings and other structures. These disrupt the flow of air into "eddies", or areas of turbulence influenced by these obstructions.

When moist, stable air flows over a larger eddie, such as those caused by mountains, a series of large-scale standing waves form on the leeward side of the mountain. If the temperature at the crest of the wave drops below the local dew point, moisture in the air may condense to form lenticular clouds. Under certain conditions, long strings of lenticular clouds may form near the crest of each successive wave, creating a formation known as a "wave cloud". These wave systems can produce large updrafts, occasionally enough for water vapour to condense and produce precipitation. Lenticular clouds have been said to be mistaken for UFOs; as many of these clouds have the shape of a "flying saucer", with a characteristic "lens"or smooth, "saucer-like" shape. Because lenticular clouds generally do not form over low-lying or flat terrain, many people may have never seen one before and don't know that they can exist. Bright colours (called iridescence) are sometimes seen along the edge of lenticular clouds.

 

Pilots of powered aircraft tend to avoid flying near lenticular clouds because of the turbulence of the rotor systems that accompany them, but glider pilots actively seek them out. The precise location of the rising air mass is fairly easy to predict from the orientation of the clouds. "Wave lift" of this kind is often very smooth and strong, and enables gliders to soar to remarkable altitudes and to great distances. As of 2016 the gliding world records for both distance (over 3,000 km; 1,864 mi) and absolute altitude (15,460 m; 50,721 ft) were set using such lift.

Sort Sol (The Black Sun), Southwestern Jutland, Denmark

The Black Sun or Sort Sol that’s worth seeing at least once. Thousands of visitors from all over the world travel to the Scandinavian country to watch the sunset being blocked by massive flocks of birds, as for a few minutes Denmark’s sky resembles a painting. Sort sol is a murmuration, nature phenomenon in the marshlands in southwestern Jutland, Denmark, in particular the marsh near Tønder and Ribe. Very large numbers of migrational starlings gather there in spring and autumn when they move between their winter grounds in southern Europe and their summer breeding grounds in Scandinavia and other countries near the Baltic Sea.

Sort sol takes place in the hours just after sunset. The birds gather in large flocks and form huge formations in the sky just before they decide for a location to roost for the night. The movements of the formations have been likened to kind of a dance or ballet and the birds are so numerous that they seem to obliterate the sunset, hence the term "sort sol" (Danish for "black sun"). Sort sol in the marsh near Tender can occasionally comprise a formation with up to one million birds. Usually flocks break up when the number of individuals exceed about half a million birds due to excessive internal disturbances in the flock. If a predator bird enters the flock, the starlings initiate a veritable bombardment with droppings and vomit that soil the feathers of the predator. In rare cases the sticky deposits may render the predator unable to stay airborne. Over 20 years, there have been two confirmed cases of young northern goshawks that drowned because the incident took place over water.

 

 

Some evenings the starlings are especially active “air dancing” - making rapid changes of direction and flying around the air before they decide where to settle for the night. This is due to birds of prey nearby – goshawks, falcons or common buzzards. The birds of prey do usually catch many starlings during the air show and the starlings will all start to fly together, trying to scare the birds of prey away by flying towards them or trying to come above them to make a counter attack with vomit and bird droppings which make the birds' feathers sticky so that they can't fly. Other evenings no birds of prey are nearby. Then the starlings make no “air dances” but descend directly in the reeds. Often the starlings will change their sleeping locations, as they try to trick the birds of prey. Besides the reeds often break because of the heavy weight of the amount of birds. You can’t quite be sure where the starlings choose to stay for the night.

The Black Sun period in the spring is shorter than in autumn. In general, the spring migration occurs from February to mid-April, and autumn migration begins in August and can last all the way to December. The largest black sun experiences will usually be in late March and early April and again in September and October. Mid-October will usually give you the most breathtaking experiences in autumn. In recent years there has still been impressive Black Sun around the1st of November in Ribe.

Many evenings you can watch the starlings dance from the bird watchtower at Ribelund (around 1 km. from Danhostel Ribe). Take an evening stroll through the park of Ribelund and watch all the animals - deer, kangaroos, goats, horses, donkeys etc. From the watchtower you may then enjoy the beautiful view of Ribe Østerå and the marshes of Ribe. Enjoy the tranquillity and the sunset above Ribe Cathedral. Please don’t disturb the birds by photographing with flash, though. Other evenings the most magnificent sights have been near Tangeskoven or Kammerslusen. You may spend the day at the Wadden Sea with a visit to the Ribe Dyke and to the Wadden Sea island Mandø.

The Ijen Volcano (Electric-Blue Fire), East Java, Indonesia

The Ijen volcano complex is a group of composite volcanoes located on the border between Banyuwangi Regency and Bondowoso Regency of East Java, Indonesia. It is inside a larger caldera Ijen, which is about 20 kilometres wide. The Gunung Merapi stratovolcano is the highest point of that complex. The name "Gunung Merapi" means "mountain of fire" in the Indonesian language (api being "fire"); Mount Merapi in central Java and Marapi in Sumatra have the same etymology.

West of Gunung Merapi is the Ijen volcano, which has a one-kilometre-wide turquoise-coloured acidic crater lake. The lake is the site of a labour-intensive sulfur mining operation, in which sulfur-laden baskets are carried by hand from the crater floor. Many other post-caldera cones and craters are located within the caldera or along its rim. The largest concentration of post-caldera cones run east-west across the southern side of the caldera. The active crater at Kawah Ijen has a diameter of 722 metres (2,369 ft) and a surface area of 0.41 square kilometres (0.16 sq mi). It is 200 metres (660 ft) deep and has a volume of 36 cubic hectometres (29,000 acre⋅ft).

The lake is recognised as the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world. It is also a source for the river Banyupahit, resulting in highly acidic and metal-enriched river water which has a significant detrimental effect on the downstream river ecosystem. On July 14–15, 2008, explorer George Kourounis took a small rubber boat out onto the acid lake to measure its acidity. The pH of the water in the lake's edges was measured to be 0.5 and in the middle of the lake 0.13 due to high sulfuric acid concentration.

 

 

Since National Geographic mentioned the electric-blue flame of Ijen, tourist numbers increased. The phenomenon has occurred for a long time, but beforehand there was no midnight hiking. A two-hour hike is required to reach the rim of the crater, followed by a 45-minute hike down to the bank of the crater. The blue fire is ignited sulfuric gas, which emerges from cracks at temperatures up to 600 °C (1,112 °F).

The flames can be up to five meters (16 feet) high; some of the gas condenses to liquid and is still ignited. It is the largest blue flame area in the world and local people refer to it as 'Blue Fire'. The glow is actually the light from the combustion of sulfuric gases. Some of the gases condense into liquid sulfur, "which continues to burn as it flows down the slopes.

Hair ice, Found In Broadleaf Forests Around the World

Hair ice, also known as ice wool or frost beard, is a type of ice that forms on dead wood and takes the shape of fine, silky hair. It is somewhat uncommon, and has been reported mostly at latitudes between 45–55 °N in broadleaf forests. The meteorologist and discoverer of continental drift, Alfred Wegener, described hair ice on wet dead wood in 1918, assuming some specific fungi as the catalyst, a theory mostly confirmed by Gerhart Wagner and Christian Mätzler in 2005. In 2015, the fungus Exidiopsis effusa was identified as key to the formation of hair ice.

Hair ice forms on moist, rotting wood from broadleaf trees when temperatures are slightly under 0 °C (32 °F) and the air is humid. Each of the smooth, silky hairs has a diameter of about 0.02 mm (0.0008 in) and a length of up to 20 cm (8 in). The hairs are brittle, but take the shape of curls and waves. They can maintain their shape for hours and sometimes days. This long lifetime indicates that something is preventing the small ice crystals from recrystallizing into larger ones, since recrystallization normally occurs very quickly at temperatures near 0 °C (32 °F).

 

The hairs appear to root at the mouth of wood rays (never on the bark), and their thickness is similar to the diameter of the wood ray channels. A piece of wood that produces hair ice once may continue to produce it over several years. In the year 2015, German and Swiss scientists identified the fungus Exidiopsis effusa as key to the formation of hair ice.The fungus was found on every hair ice sample examined by the researchers, and disabling the fungus with fungicide or hot water prevented hair ice formation. The fungus shapes the ice into fine hairs through an uncertain mechanism and likely stabilizes it by providing a recrystallization inhibitor similar to antifreeze proteins.